As the years pass it becomes readily apparent that time has not been kind to the Silent Hill series. Silent Hill 1 hasn't aged very well, Silent Hill 3 is outshined by better games and Silent Hill 4 had those obnoxious ghosts ruining your day. Only Silent Hill 2 has really stood the test of time but one game cannot buoy a series. The last entry in the series, Silent Hill Origins, replaced horror with a vest that can carry fourteen televisions and ten typewriters for "realisms" sake. Bearing this in mind it was with much trepidation that I approached Silent Hill Homecoming, the second game in the series to not be developed by Team Silent, the original developers.

There's some good news to be had with this change but there's some bad as well. Unfortunately for those of you who happen to be PC gamers you're getting the worst news one could possibly get: the game is broken.

The protagonist, Alex Shepherd, is a soldier who is returning home after being discharged due to a battlefield injury. Upon reaching his hometown of Shepherds Glen it becomes readily apparent that all is not as it should be. The streets are deserted, the town is covered in a thick fog and strange sounds can be heard. Upon returning home his near catatonic mother informs him that his little brother Joshua has gone missing with her husband leaving to chase after him. Alex begins his own search for clues as to what's happened to his brother, an investigation that will lead him to explore the dark history of his hometown and its links to neighboring Silent Hill.

While the plot isn't the greatest in the world, and is strongly reminiscent of Silent Hill 1, it's serviceable enough to move along the story. Towards the end of the game the plot twists just keep on coming and they're pretty good even if you manage to figure them out ahead of time. Even more interesting is that there is a lot of subtle symbolism in the game that, if read into, makes certain plot points much more interesting. The repetition of the number "206" and interpreting the creatures in the game is half the fun of the title and shows a lot of thought was put into the game.

On the other hand the game borrows just a bit too liberally from the movies to be truly called innovative. The nurses look like their film counterparts, the giant bugs are similar, the real time Otherworld transitions are here and Pyramid Head makes some showings. Heck the Smog even looks like the movie rendition of the Lying Figure monster. Although, in fairness, the movie / Homecoming Pyramid Head looks much more intimidating than the Silent Hill 2 beast but his presence in the game is somewhat dubious.

One of the more fiery points of contention towards this game is the combat system. Alex can execute combos by mixing up his light and strong attacks as well as using the dodge system to evade enemy attacks. This, in theory, makes the combat much more interesting than the melee combat from the previous titles which consisted of "step in the enemies face and swing away." By de-emphasizing the guns, limiting the ammo and making you fight enemies like this it seems they were attempting to make you pay attention to the fights instead of considering them an impediment to the next plot point.

In reality all you need for most enemies is the knife weapon which, due to its speed, is almost impossible for enemies to counter and reduces the combat to a "step in the enemies face and swing away" affair. Even if you use other weapons by using the dodge skill at the right times you can make it so that enemies never lay a hand on you. Only one enemy, the Siam, in the game proves a real challenge since neither the knife nor dodging really work on them. Even bosses fall pretty easily to proper dodging and knifing.

The most notable feature about this game is how much improved the graphics are from previous Silent Hill entries. The backgrounds are all rendered in great detail with dynamic lighting casting everything in suitably creepy shadows. In addition the character models and enemies are all incredibly well detailed down the stitching in the flesh clothing that the Nurses wear. As you attack the creatures wounds will appear on their bodies in synch with the wounds you should be dealing. While they don't always match (i.e. Horizontal slash gets a vertical injury depending on some unknown factors) it's still a nice little detail.

Of course a Silent Hill game wouldn't be complete without a soundtrack done by Akira Yamaoka and Homecoming doesn't let us down in this respect. The music is suitably moody, helping to set the mood during gameplay and great to listen to. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn sings several of the more memorable tracks most notable of which is the main theme to the game. Even the voice acting is top notch for most characters making this game an aural treat every step of the way.

All of this doesn't mean a single thing for gamers who try to play this on the PC. For whatever reason this game is riddled with so many glitches and bugs that many gamers are finding it impossible to even get past the initial "Nightmare" sequence. Some of the more common glitches are: crackling sounds will begin to accompany speech and music, frame rates dropping off the radar during cutscenes and sound de-synch. While the console versions have numerous bugs and glitches of their own, some that can even ruin game saves, none actually prevent you from playing the game.

To even get the game running in a stable manner it took this reviewer more than two hours of trawling around the internet and the application of four fan made patches that fixed various issues. Even with that done it's impossible to enjoy the game properly since it's advised you set the graphics down to medium or low and shadows give off a peculiar lighting to your character. Considering that the game has been out for more than five months it's ridiculous that a patch hasn't been released to address these numerous problems by now.

If you have the opportunity to play Silent Hill Homecoming it's an experience that comes heavily recommended… on every platform except for the PC. For whatever reason, likely the unimpressive sales of this title, Homecoming fans have been completely ignored by the developers as far as patches go. Since the Steam only PC release of the title is so horribly ported if you're going to use your money make sure to go with the console version. Playing it on a console is definitely the way to go. The controls are designed around a console controller and the bugs in the console release are far less terminal.